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Monday, January 19, 2015

Underwater Radio

The Radio Ship Radio Mi Amigo (rogermathew.com)

It
is known that at least five radio broadcasting stations, or major components
thereof, are lying at the bottom of the ocean in the ship that was carrying the
equipment at the time. Four of these
sunken ships were due to enemy action, and one was the result of a fierce
winter storm.

Back in the year 1940, soon after
the onset of the European Conflict, a 100 kW shortwave transmitter,
manufactured at the Marconi company in Chelmsford England, was shipped out to
Singapore Island. It was intended that
this transmitter would be installed at a new shortwave station still under
construction, adjacent to the early Radio Malaya station at Jurong on the
western side of Singapore island. When
activated, this station was to act as a relay for the BBC London, with coverage
into Asia and the Pacific.

However, due to an attack by an
enemy submarine, the ship was sunk en route and the entire cargo was lost,
including the electronic equipment for the new BBC shortwave relay
station. Instead, a 50 kW RCA shortwave
transmitter was subsequently consigned to Singapore, but before it could be
activated, it was removed and taken to Barbados in the Caribbean where it was
installed for Cable & Wireless at Bearded Hall under the callsign VPO.

Back in the year 1941, plans were
laid for the installation of a megapowered mediumwave station at a secret
underground location near Crowborough in England. This station was intended to beam surreptitious programming in various
languages to continental Europe, and also to act as a BBC relay station for
coverage into the same continental areas.

At the time, a super powered 500 kW
transmitter was nearing completion at
the RCA factory in Camden New Jersey which had been ordered by NBC for
mediumwave WJZ at Bound Brook, New Jersey.
However, the FCC had imposed a 50 kW power limit for mediumwave stations
in the United States and NBC-WJZ no longer needed this huge transmitter.

China demonstrated an interest in
procuring this megalithic transmitter, but while negotiations were still underway,
the British government arranged to purchase it and have it shipped across the
Atlantic. The transmitter was
re-engineered for 600 kW, disassembled into smaller units, crated and stowed
separately into several different ships.

One of these cargo ships, carrying
the antennas and towers, was sunk in the Atlantic by an enemy submarine and the
equipment was lost. Very hurriedly, new
towers and antennas were manufactured in the United States and freighted across
the Atlantic where it was all installed above ground for the underground
American transmitter, known as Aspidistra, at Crowborough.

During the latter half of the
European Conflict, PWI Press Wireless International, manufactured and shipped
across the Atlantic numerous transmitters, large and small, for use in islandic
and continental Europe. Some of these
shipments contained their famous 40 kW shortwave transmitter, and other
shipments contained complete mobile radio broadcasting stations. The mobile stations usually contained a 400
watt transmitter, always capable of high speed Morse Code, and sometimes also
capable of voice transmission.

Much of this radio equipment was
manufactured at their new factory quite near to their large shortwave station
at Hicksville on Long Island, New York and then shipped across the
Atlantic. PWI states that at least one
of these mobile stations was sunk by an enemy submarine in 1944, and that
station still lies to this day on the floor of the Atlantic Ocean.

Also in the year 1944, Lord Louis
Mountbatten expedited the construction of a large shortwave station at Ekala, a
dozen miles north of Colombo in Ceylon, as it was known in those days. A large shipment of radio equipment,
including electronic items from the Marconi factory at Chelmsford and redundant
antenna systems from the Isle of Wight, were shipped out from England.

However, the entire consignment was
lost to enemy submarine action in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Sri
Lanka. Ultimately, a new consignment of
equipment was sent out from England, and this was installed at the SEAC
installation at Ekala, where it was in use for many years for the relay of
programming by the BBC London, the Voice of America and Adventist World
Radio. This SEAC station also carried
programming on behalf of SLBC, the Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation.

Back in 1965, Ronan O’Rahilly in
England ordered a 50 kW mediumwave transmitter from Continental Electronics in
Dallas Texas for installation on the ship Mi Amigo, which was on the air at the
time as the famous pirate radio station, Radio Caroline. During that era, Continental was constructing
several 50 kW mediumwave transmitters, Model 317C, for various clients.

However, the BBC suddenly needed two
50 kW mediumwave transmitters for its new Central Africa Relay Station at Francistown in
Botswana and entrepreneur O’Rahilly agreed to allow the BBC to take the No
12 transmitter that he had ordered. The BBC also took an additional unit, No 13,
so O’Rahilly agreed
to accept transmitter No 14 in this series which he installed on board the Mi
Amigo.

Some 15 years later, on March 19,
1980, the ship Mi Amigo encountered a Force 10 storm and she drifted for 10
nautical miles before running aground on the Long Sand Bank. The ship sank next day where she now lies in
10 feet of water in the Thames Estuary out from London.

The 50 kW mediumwave transmitter also went down
with the ship, and that is where it lies
to this day, at the shallow bottom of the North Sea!